Method to generate highly accurate thermodynamic and physical fluid properties of real light-distillate fuels for one-dimensional hydraulic models using a detailed multi-component surrogate formulation approach

A computer system to improve performance of an internal combustion engine, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, comprising functionality for:
• determining, based on a detailed hydrocarbon analysis, a plurality of hydrocarbons of a physical fuel sample;
• selecting, for a first hydrocarbon of the plurality of hydrocarbons, a first plurality of chemicals from a list of known chemicals of a chemical process software package, the first hydrocarbon having a first equivalent molecular structure as each of the first plurality of chemicals;
• dividing a first concentration of the first hydrocarbon in the physical fuel sample into a first plurality of surrogate concentrations corresponding to the first plurality of chemicals;
• generating a multi-component surrogate based at least on the first plurality of surrogate concentrations, wherein each of the first plurality of chemicals represents the first hydrocarbon as a surrogate in the multi-component surrogate;
• generating, by using the multi-component surrogate to represent the physical fuel sample in a one-dimensional (1D) hydraulic modeling software, modelling results of a direct injection (DI) system of the internal combustion engine, the modeling results comprising calculated interaction between the physical fuel sample and mechanical components in the DI system;
• and
• refining, based on the modelling results, structural features of the mechanical components in the DI system to improve the performance of the internal combustion engine,
• wherein the refining comprises:
• assessing efficacy of hardware design changes of the mechanical components in said improving the performance of the internal combustion engine;
• and
• performing an experiment where an amount of the physical fuel sample is dispensed using an actual physical injector to obtain an experimental performance measurement,
• wherein the experimental performance measurement substantially matches a modeled performance measurement in the modeling results.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by a computer processor to improve performance of an internal combustion engine, the instructions comprising functionality for:

• determining, based on a detailed hydrocarbon analysis, a plurality of hydrocarbons of a physical fuel sample;
• selecting, for a first hydrocarbon of the plurality of hydrocarbons, a first plurality of chemicals from a list of known chemicals of a chemical process software package, the first hydrocarbon having a first equivalent molecular structure as each of the first plurality of chemicals;
• dividing a first concentration of the first hydrocarbon in the physical fuel sample into a first plurality of surrogate concentrations corresponding to the first plurality of chemicals;
• generating a multi-component surrogate based at least on the first plurality of surrogate concentrations, wherein each of the first plurality of chemicals represents the first hydrocarbon as a surrogate in the multi-component surrogate;
• generating, by using the multi-component surrogate to represent the physical fuel sample in a one-dimensional (1D) hydraulic modeling software, modelling results of a direct injection (DI) system of the internal combustion engine, the modeling results comprising calculated interaction between the physical fuel sample and mechanical components in the DI system;
• and
• refining, based on the modelling results, structural features of the mechanical components in the DI system to improve the performance of the internal combustion engine,
• wherein the refining comprises:
• assessing efficacy of hardware design changes of the mechanical components in said improving the performance of the internal combustion engine;
• and
• performing an experiment where an amount of the physical fuel sample is dispensed using an actual physical injector to obtain an experimental performance measurement,
• wherein the experimental performance measurement substantially matches a modeled performance measurement in the modeling results.